Google Asia Pacific Blog: March 2015

Cracking the code: Empowering students to solve problems and make their own apps

Monday, March 30, 2015

Editors note: This post comes from Michelle Sun, Founder of First Code Academy A digital divide can exist even in places like Hong Kong, which has a household broadband penetration rate of over 80%. Ethnic divisions can quite often leave minorities, many of them children of immigrants, disconnected from the digital growth around them.

To begin to address this, our Hong Kong-based First Code Academy organized with Google and US Consulate General HK a series of five “AppJamming” workshops for 32 ethnic minority students from CMA Choi Cheung Kok Secondary School. The students learned to create applications using App Inventor, a blocks-based programming tool originally developed at Google Education.

While the five classes can’t be considered enough to make someone a professional coder, it encourages people to pursue a career path they might never have considered. Satara Ilyas, a Form 5 student, thinks of herself an “arts person.” Nevertheless, “We use so many apps everyday and it would be really interesting to actually program them ourselves,” she said before the class. The workshops sparked her curiosity and five sessions of AppJamming “went by too quickly.”
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During the course, students also learned to patiently identify, debug and solve problems one-by-one. Building a functional app to solve real-world problems was a major theme of the workshops. In the third session, students programmed a calculator; for their final project, they brainstormed ideas to solve the biggest problems in their lives.
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Anas, a soft-spoken Form 3 student, came to the workshop with a specific goal, wanting “to build an app to help my classmates remember their homework assignments.” For his final project, he ended up building a sophisticated calculator with his teammate, Suleman, but he continues to explore ways to accomplish his homework assignment app outside the workshops.

These workshops are designed to help students begin to understand the possibilities of using technology in everyday applications. By partnering with Google and the US Consulate General Hong Kong for these workshops, we hope to empower students with basic computer programming skills to help them think creatively about addressing social issues with technology.

Posted by Michelle Sun, Founder of First Code Academy

All hail, the King of Kowloon

Friday, March 27, 2015

Forty years before Banksy tagged London and 25 years before Dondi “burned” New York’s subway trains, Tsang Tsou-choi brought Chinese calligraphy to the streets of Hong Kong as the “King of Kowloon.” Today the vast majority of his 55,000 works survive only as photographs; the originals destroyed by time, weather and Hong Kong’s perpetual redevelopment.

You can now explore this cultural icon’s work through the Google Cultural Institute’s new King of Kowloon collection covering Tsang’s life, times and art through 170 works and a virtual tour of the electrical boxes, pillars, scaffolding poles, and walls that Tsang literally claimed as his domain. Here’s how Jehan Chu, director and founder of Art Research Institute describes Tsang’s writing:

Described as an “urban poet” by curator Hans Ulrich-Obrist, Tsang writing includes dates, locations, family’s ancestry, curses, and most often, his claim as the King of Kowloon. The language is fragmented, omits punctuation, and typically repeats the same themes and phrases across writings.

Sai Wan, Hong Kong (1996-1997) by Tsang Tsou Choi, Art Research Institute

Connaught Road, Central (1996-1997) by Tsang Tsou Choi, Art Research Instititute

There are some traces of the king left. Here's a pillar at Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui with Tsang’s artwork still preserved:

Street artists have always made a tough trade. What they gain in high exposure, often comes at the expense of their legacy, as their art gets washed away by city councils or the natural elements. We hope that this collection preserves the legacy of a Hong Kong icon, and gives the people of Hong Kong and around the world a way to explore and appreciate this pioneer’s work with a sense of its original context away from pristine and quiet gallery walls.

Posted by Lauren Nemroff, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute

10 great ideas for Japan, 10 grants from Google

Thursday, March 26, 2015

In the hectic few months since we announced the Google Impact Challenge for Japan in November, hundreds of nonprofits submitted ideas, 10 finalists were selected and hundreds of thousands of people voted on which projects Japan needs most.

Today, a panel of judges — including First Lady Akie Abe, astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Change.org Japan Director Emmy Suzuki Harris, as well as Miki Iwamura from Google Japan and myself — watched the top 10 teams pitch and chose the winners of a 50 million yen grant, program-management and consulting support from ETIC and mentoring from Google.

So, without further ado, here are the ideas we hope to help turn into realities:

Winner of the Public Vote	Nobel - Online network to support single-parent households with a single location to access basic resources such as childcare and affordable housing
Women Will Award	Madre Bonita - App to provide postpartum care for new mothers and to enable friends and family to give postpartum classes as a gift
Judges Award	Homedoor - App and data analytics to reduce crime and employ the homeless as night-safety patrols in high-crime areas
Judges Award	PADM - Crowdsourced accessibility map for Japan to help individuals in wheelchairs more easily navigate their communities by documenting barrier-free locations

From the start we knew that any meaningful Impact Challenge in Japan should address some of the challenges faced by women, considering just 38% of women who work, and 28% of those who don’t, believe that society supports them working once they are mothers. We reserved one of the awards specifically for this issue and are delighted that the public seems to agree with us and voted in such a way that we ended up awarding grants to two great ideas for helping women in Japan.

But, well, why stop there? We’re on a roll.

We were so impressed by all the ideas pitched today, that we couldn’t let the other organizations go home empty handed. We told each of the remaining six finalists they’d also get a grant of 25 million yen and the same support from ETIC and mentoring from Google. These include:

Mission ARM Japan - Low-cost 3D printed prosthetic limbs
Sodate-Age Net - Digital skills training for disadvantaged youth to increase their employment opportunities
Fukushima Internet Television - SMS outreach to provide mental-health peer support and improve the accessibility of suicide counseling
Nijiiro Diversity - Digital outreach campaign to build tolerance for sexual minorities and education on LGBT issues in the workplace through training courses and certification
Smile Club - Mobile gym and data-driven health coaching for the elderly to encourage active lifestyles and healthy living
Dot JP - Data analysis and visualization to make political funding flows transparent by leveraging a cloud-information system

Excited to see what they accomplish in the years ahead.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org

From Seoul to Rio: How Retrica Went Global

Thursday, March 26, 2015

This post is part of our regular series of interviews with people across Asia-Pacific who’ve caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow.

This week we interviewed Sangwon Park, Founder of Retrica in Korea.

What is Retrica?
Retrica is a camera app that lets you filter photos in real-time. With this app, you can set a filter before taking a photo and then the filter is immediately reflected in the photo. This app was the first successful product made by Venticake, a company I helped to establish in October 2011.

Retrica is a camera app that lets you filter photos in real-time.

What motivated you to develop Retrica and to target the global market?
When I started the business I set myself the goal of entering the global market. I chose to make a photo app because it’s not really affected by language. Back then, most of the photo apps allowed users to edit photos after taking them, so I decided to develop a real-time camera filter app, combining the camera features and editing features.

When did it launch, and how many users are there now?
When I first launched this app, in November 2012, we only supported iOS. Then I discovered that people had made a Twitter community named “We Want Retrica on Android.” I felt proud that users really wanted this app. In response, I launched Retrica for Android in Google Play in April 2014 after four months of development. Downloads exploded after the Android launch — monthly downloads increased more than 11-fold for the first two months. I was very surprised by this rapid growth. This was a miracle: there seems to be no other way to describe this.

What is the share of downloads from Korean users and global users? Are there any countries where the app is particularly popular?
About 98.5% of all downloads in Google Play come from outside of Korea. This clearly shows that Retrica is a global service. This app is performing well in South America in particular. For example, our analytics show that about 21 million smartphone users have our app in Brazil, which is about 40% of everyone with a smartphone in that country.

Did you expect that global success?
I had the global market in mind when I developed and launched this app, but I never thought that it would have such great performance overseas. If somebody asked me to share the secret to success in the global market, I would say that it’s Google Play’s global coverage. Google Play is a platform that reaches 1 billion users in more than 190 countries. Without Google Play, I would not have known that there was an opportunity in the South American market.

Based on your experience, what is your advice for Korean startups dreaming of the global market?
Your product is the most important thing. I made sure to create a simple UI which allows users to open the app and take a photo right away, on any device. Besides that, I listened to user feedback including emails and user reviews. With the help of Google Translate, I can even read and reply to emails from overseas users. Google Play provides simple distribution and updates (it allows over four times more updates compared to other app stores) so I can easily reflect feedback from users. I also use Google Play statistics and Google Analytics to analyze user behavior to find out what to improve.

What are your future plans and goals for Retrica?
My goals are to maintain user growth and increase user return visits. After taking a photo with Retrica, you can choose to include the Retrica logo in your photo, what we call the “Retrica Watermark.” We are planning to take this one step further, by providing users with more options to edit the photos after taking them, such as recording the date, time, or place where the photo was taken.

Posted by Sangwon Park, Founder of Retrica in Korea

"I always have a different feeling when I perform in Asia"

Saturday, March 21, 2015

How would you describe your YouTube channel in one sentence?
Positive, feel-good comedy created for humans and unicorns alike.

How did it all start? Why did you choose YouTube as a medium?
I spontaneously posted my first YouTube video in 2010. Prior to YouTube I used to record funny audio skits but the thought of also recording my weird face excited me. I had no plans of becoming a ‘YouTuber’ when I uploaded for the first time. It was as simple as having an idea, recording myself and throwing it up on the internet.

How was the response back then?
The initial response to my videos was mixed. There was a group of people who were supportive and, of course, there was a group of people that disliked the idea of an outspoken Indian girl. Today I can confidently say that both groups still exist BUT the lovers outnumber the haters by a landslide. Either that, or I’ve just learned to focus on the positive *eats popcorn*.

Which ones are your personal favorite videos?
My favourite videos are the ones in which I get to collaborate with people I’m a fan of. For example, my collaboration with Madhuri Dixit is definitely an all time favourite. I grew up watching all of her movies and idolized her as a child. To act next to her in one of my videos was a dream come true. I mean c’mon it’s Madhuri-freaking-Dixit! *breathe*

YouTube FanFest gives you a chance to get off-screen and on-stage. What did it feel like to be on stage in front of fans for the first time?
I. LOVED. IT. As someone who creates YouTube videos, I’ve gotten used to interacting with people through comments, likes and tweets. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that all of those numbers represent real people. When I’m on stage and I can physically see people interacting with what I’m saying, the feeling is surreal.

Tell us about your fans in India and Asia — what's different about them?
My Indian/Asian fans have shown me nothing but support from the beginning. I’ve performed in a lot of countries in my lifetime and I can confidently say that the energy I receive from Asian audiences is one of a kind. All of my fans across the world are amazing, but I always have a different feeling when I perform in Asia. It’s almost as if they’ve all welcomed me into their family and instead of fans, they’re all my brothers and sisters.

You have big plans to tour and meet fans worldwide this year. What inspired the world tour idea and what are you hoping to achieve through it?
I’ve been performing at various different shows for many years now and I think I reached a point where I didn’t want to be a guest act on someone else’s show anymore. I’ve been craving the opportunity to put on my own show and bring my YouTube channel to life on stage. I’m hoping to achieve two goals:
1) I want to put on a great show. I want them to watch the show and say ‘wow, this girl deserves 5 million subscribers.’
2) I want to stay true to why I started making YouTube videos — to make people laugh and smile. My show will be the ultimate reminder that life is and always will be beautiful if you simply decide to live it that way.

Meet India's newest members of the YouTube million-subscriber club

Friday, March 20, 2015

This post is part of our regular series of interviews with people across Asia-Pacific who’ve caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow. This week, we’re featuring The Viral Fever and All India Bakchod, the first independent creator groups in India to get 1 million subscribers on their YouTube channels.

How would you describe your YouTube channel in one sentence
All India Bakchod (AIB): As India's largest comedy collective, All India Bakchod is irreverent, biting, goofy, filmy, sharp, super sexy and extremely modest.
The Viral Fever (TVF): Our flagship YouTube channel - TheViralFeverVideos - is dedicated to creating the content India’s youth want, but can’t find, on TV.

What was the breakthrough moment for you on YouTube?
AIB: That would have to be our video titled 'It's Your Fault', which satirized the culture of victim blaming in India. We didn't anticipate it then, but given the pervasive nature of rape culture globally, audiences across the world identified with the message. Given that it is an issue we feel strongly about, along with the fact that it was translated into 10 languages and even played at the UN, makes it one of our most significant efforts.

TVF: Our first video: Rowdies (on TheViralFeverVideos). We believe it was one of the first made-for-YouTube videos to go viral in India and that was when we realized we had something special to offer Indians - a fresh commentary.

TVF's "Barely Speaking With Arnub" gets amazing guests, and then ignores them.

India is home to Bollywood which produces more movies and sells more movie tickets than any other country. You, as online stars, have just crossed 1 million subscribers on YouTube. What do you think this means for entertainment and content creation in India?
AIB: We're all here to entertain and YouTube gives audiences so many more options, which means that traditional entertainment will have to eventually sit up and take notice. The silver screen is always going to hold a certain appeal, especially in a country like India, but there's more than enough scope for the two to play off each other and create opportunities that we are only just beginning to see.
TVF: Our flagship channel now reaches the same amount of people as some niche channels that run regularly on TV. If you create quality content, then the audience will follow. With YouTube, you can also engage with the people who watch you, and understand what it is that makes them stop and laugh.

Tell us about your fans: Are you reaching audiences outside of India? What do you think drives audiences in India and beyond to your content?
AIB: First up, our fans are ridiculously loyal and patient, which never ceases to amaze us. And yes, as it turns out, audiences from outside India are also watching us. What works is that a bunch of people who look like them and sound like them are saying things in an unexpected manner. We're a bunch of ordinary Indians creating content about the various aspects of Indianness — and we're making them laugh as hard as many of our western counterparts.
TVF: 20-25% of our audiences are in US, UK, UAE and Canada. What helped us reach millions of people was our sensitivity in creating content fans can relate to and also the fact that we work we hard on our craft — writing, directing, editing and acting.

From streets to screens: a tour of Asia-Pacific's street art

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

So much goes into the making of street art and then it often disappears before most people can see it — leaving the story of the artwork and the artist who created it, untold. With today’s addition of 260 new exhibits to the Google Art Project street-art collection, these ephemeral works are now digitally preserved for you to explore wherever you are.

To help you navigate the back alleys, and make sure you don’t trip over any paint cans along the way, we’ve selected highlights from across the region:

Watch the making of the largest mural in India — a smiling, 158 foot image of Mahatma Gandhi — at the Delhi Police Headquarters during the st+art Delhi festival.

Check out how Portuguese artist Akacorleone, transformed an abandoned wall in Bangkok into a gold-and-black mural inspired by Thailand's national epic the "Ramakhien," during the Bukruk Street Art Festival.

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Bukruk International Street Art Festival, Akorleone

See how symbols of religion, wildlife and national pride have changed the face of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu as lax laws about graffiti, and continuous construction has sparked an explosion in street art in recent years.

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Kapilvastu, Nepal Children's Art Museum

Meander among the murals of Melbourne’s Hosier Lane, or see Perth transformed into an urban canvas following PUBLIC 2014.

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Infinitas, ROA

Or dive right into Korea’s Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, and see how local artists transformed the space for the Korean Graffiti Art exhibition.

Korea's Geyonggi Museum of Modern Art

Since bringing street art to the Art Project last year, there are now 10,000 high resolution images of public art from 34 countries and 86 art organizations to explore. We’ve also added more ways to experience street art in your daily life — bring the streets to your TV screen with Chromecast; discover a new artwork every time you open a Chrome tab; check out one of the new partner apps; or see the streets on your wrist with the new Android Wear Street Art Watch Faces. Visit the Google Cultural Institute to find out more.

Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Zoom with a view: Visit India’s stunning monuments online

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Since last year, we’ve partnered with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and other institutions to bring a comprehensive range of India’s heritage sites online, including national icons like the Taj Mahal, Safdarjung Tomb, and the Ellora Caves. Starting today, history lovers and online explorers alike can now find new panoramic views of 31 Indian archaeological sites and monuments on Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute. Here’s a virtual walk through of some of these stunning monuments, made possible by Street View technology:

Begin your journey at the Gateway of India, a popular starting point for tourists who wish to explore bustling Mumbai, one of India's largest cities. Pan through the imagery for a closer look at the yellow basalt stone arch, covered with intricate Gujarati-influenced latticework.

From there, hop over to the Sun Temple at Konârk, one of India’s Seven Wonders and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for a glimpse of the chariot-shaped temple and its elaborately carved stone wheels, pillars and walls.

For a flavour of India’s royal legacy, visit the Mysore Palace next, one of the country’s grandest royal palaces. Built in the Indo-Saracenic style, the Palace hosts the Mysore Dasara, which celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2010 and attracts visitors from around the world.

Next, wander through the remains of ancient India’s highest seat of education - the Nalanda University. Learn more about the amazing discoveries uncovered during its excavation through the Archaeological Survey of India’s virtual exhibit, “Nalanda: from Mound to Monument", on the Google Cultural Institute.

Following that, roam through Karnataka’s largest temple complex: the Group of Monuments at Pattadakal, an impressive series of nine Hindu temples and a Jain sanctuary. This World Heritage Site celebrates the Chalukya dynasty, narrating stories of their bravery and valour in the battlefield.

You can also head further down south to the state of Tamil Nadu for a look at Thanjavur Temple on Street View, a fine example of Tamil architecture created during India’s Chola dynasty. The temple, dedicated to Chola emperor Rajaraja, is entirely built out of granite.

That’s just a quick tour of some of the 31 sites we’ve brought onto Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute today by working with the ASI, as well as the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Karnataka Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation. We hope exploring the new panoramic views of these important sites will help people in India and around the world discover, explore, and learn more about India’s rich heritage.

Posted by: Chetan Krishnaswamy, Country Head - Public Policy, Google India

Calling for votes on 10 ideas for a better Japan

Monday, March 16, 2015

Back in November, Eric Schmidt helped us announce in Tokyo that the Google Impact Challenge was coming to Japan. At the time, we invited Japanese nonprofits to send in their ideas for how they’d use technology to improve people’s lives, and we promised that 4 of the best ideas would receive a ¥50 million grant and mentoring from Google.

The response has been incredible, and today, we’re delighted to share with you the 10 Google Impact Challenge Japan finalists.

These ten nonprofit teams (full list below) will now have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to an impressive panel of judges - including First Lady Akie Abe, MIT Media Lab Professor Hiroshi Ishii, astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Change.org Japan Director Emmy Suzuki Harris, as well as Miki Iwamura from Google Japan and myself - on March 26th.

But starting today we also want to hear from you. Which of these projects do you think will have the biggest impact? By voting now for the four ideas that most inspire you, you can help decide which projects get ¥50 million in grant funding, and support from Google to help turn their idea into reality.

Here’s the full list of finalists, including links for you to vote for your favorites (if you can’t read Japanese, just click the blue check box, then the blue button that pops up):

Mission ARM Japan - Low-cost 3D printed prosthetic limbs for people with disabilities (vote now)
Homedoor - App and data analytics to reduce crime and employ the homeless as night safety patrols in high-crime areas (vote now)
Madre Bonita - App to provide postpartum care for new mothers and to enable friends and family to give postpartum classes as a gift (vote now)
Nobel - Online network to support single-parent households with a single location to access basic resources such as childcare and affordable housing (vote now)
PADM - Crowdsourced accessibility map for Japan to help individuals in wheelchairs more easily navigate their communities by documenting barrier-free locations (vote now)
Sodate-Age Net - Digital skills training for disadvantaged youth to increase their employment opportunities (vote now)
Fukushima Internet Television - SMS outreach to provide mental health peer support and improve the accessibility of suicide counseling (vote now)
Nijiiro Diversity - Digital outreach campaign to build tolerance for sexual minorities and educate on LGBT issues in the workplace through training courses and certification (vote now)
Smile Club - Mobile gym and data-driven health coaching for the elderly to encourage active lifestyles and healthy living (vote now)
Dot JP - Data analysis and visualization to make political funding flows transparent by leveraging a cloud-information system (vote now)

So what are you waiting for? Click here to visit the site and cast your vote directly (in Japanese) or you can click the ‘vote now’ links after each of the project descriptions above to help push your favorite ideas to the top. You have until 11:59 pm on March 25th.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org

All aboard! Street View takes you inside Japan’s new Hokuriku Shinkansen “Bullet Train”

Friday, March 13, 2015

Campus Seoul: Countdown to launch

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Last fall, we announced our plans for Campus Seoul — the first in Asia — as part of our network of six Campuses globally for entrepreneurs to connect, learn and build companies that can change the world.

Since then, we’ve been working hard to make Campus a reality: designing the space, learning from local entrepreneurs, fostering new partnerships and establishing the Campus team on the ground. Today, we’d like to share a few updates on what we’ve been up to in preparation for opening the doors of Campus Seoul in May!

CampusSeoul_Logo_Standard_Centered_RGB (1).png

Meet our Head of Campus Seoul
First up, we’re delighted to introduce Jeffrey Lim as the Head of Campus Seoul, helping make it a place for entrepreneurs led by an entrepreneur. Jeffrey will bring a wealth of personal experience and understanding to Campus. From founding and serving as CEO of pioneering social gaming company RocketOz, to investing in young companies at SoftBank Ventures Korea, his vision for Campus Seoul is to create an environment for Korean startups to grow and go global. (for more on Jeffrey, follow the jump for my Q&A with him)

Meet our partners too!
Aside from finding the right leader, we’ve also been hard at work finding the right, best-in-class partners to make Campus Seoul a great place for local startups to connect and grow.

To run our coworking area, where startups can find desks and office space, MARU180, a leading tech hub in Korea, will create a second home for themselves at Campus Seoul. We're thrilled to welcome MARU180 to the Campus family. 500 Startups’ new team in Korea will also be moving into Campus Seoul, looking to help the best local startups gain access to Silicon Valley, which is perfect given our focus on fostering international connections to help startups go global.

And some progress on programs
To start things off right, we have some great programs that will begin right as the doors open in Seoul. As part of our partnership with TechCrunch, they’ll be hosting their their first ever Meetup+Pitch-Off event in Seoul at Campus Seoul on April 16. Talks@Campus, a series of premier speakers, will also kick-off in April, featuring the likes of Bedy Yang, Sarah Drinkwater and Mike Butcher.

“Campus Exchange,” our program that sends startups to other Campus locations to provide them access to new markets, is already underway, kicking off with Soundl.ly, an advanced ultrasound marketing technology startup currently based in Seoul, who will be traveling to Campus London to get some expert help on building out their e-commerce offering.

And did we mention that when the doors open in May, entrepreneurs are welcome to work on their next big idea in our Campus Cafe, or hold an event (for free!)?

Needless to say, it’s been an exciting and busy few months, but this is just the start. We can’t wait to invite Korea’s doers, creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to join our community and truly take their ideas global. Stay tuned for updates on Google+, Twitter and at googleforentrepreneurs.com.

Posted by Mary Grove, Director of Google for Entrepreneurs

Visit Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures on Street View, four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake. To commemorate the occasion, we’re publishing new Street View imagery of the affected areas, captured by partners as well as our own Google Maps team.

As part of our Trekker Loan Program, Japan’s Urban Renaissance Agency (URA) captured Street View imagery of the reconstruction within Iwate Prefecture, as well as indoor panoramas of facilities within Fukushima’s evacuation areas. Here’s a look at the some of the imagery captured by URA:

A view of Rikuzentakata, as seen from the Imaizumi district. The conveyor belt transports 20,000 cubic meters of soil a day to build up the area.

View from the top of the conveyor belt running overhead in Rikuzentakata.

We’re also introducing Street View imagery taken from the ocean, which shows the Taro area of Iwate Prefecture and the Ishinomaki area of Miyagi Prefecture. By capturing panoramic imagery from the water, we hope to make it easier for people to see the current state of the Ishinomaki Fishing Harbor, as well as this view of Taro where the tsunami engulfed the 10-meter high tide embankment.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has completed the reconstruction of the Ishinomaki Fishing Harbor, which is now once again filled with boats.

You can also explore panoramic imagery of Kamaishi-city’s Unosumai district and Rikuzentakata-city’s Takata district on our Memories for the Future site. These Photo Spheres were taken every month to capture the progress of reconstruction.

ビュー: 釜石市鵜住居駅　2014年11月（撮影: UR都市機構岩手震災復興支援本部）

ビュー: 鵜住居駅　2015年２月（撮影: UR都市機構岩手震災復興支援本部）

As we remember the Great East Japan Earthquake today, we hope that this new Street View imagery can help people in Japan and around the world better understand how these areas are working to rebuild.

Posted by Yukiko Naganuma, Program Manager, Google Japan

Culture is top of mind for Street View travelers looking at Asia

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Last year, the world’s virtual tourists favored Japan: its trails weaving up Mount Fuji, its colorful, hectic canal at Dōtonbori and its secluded ruins at Hashima Island were the most popular Street View destinations in Asia. This year, though Japan still attracts many of the world’s virtual tourists, cultural monuments and temples across the region are also taking center stage.

Here’s a look at the top ten Street View destinations in Asia

In the past year, India’s iconic Taj Mahal, published on Street View only last February, has emerged as one of the most popular Asian places for global virtual travelers. The fascination with this grand, symmetrical white marble mausoleum also holds within Asia, with the Taj Mahal ranking as one of the most globally viewed destinations by people in Singapore, Australia, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia and, of course, India.

The Taj Mahal from the Main Gate

The Street View imagery of Angkor, Cambodia’s thousand-year-old temple city, has also attracted global traffic. While the majestic views of Angkor Wat and Bayon temples attract over 2 million tourists a year in offline tourism, they have also risen as top online destinations for international and Asian Street View fans alike.

The Towers at Angkor Wat in Cambodia

A view of Bayon Temple at Angkor, Cambodia

Across the region, cultural heritage sites are top of mind for people in Asia looking at Street View. Here’s a look at some of the most popular destinations around the world for Asia’s Street View fans in Australia, India, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Explore the top Street View locations viewed by people in Asia

As we continue working to bring more of the world’s diversity onto Google Maps, it’s exciting to see how virtual travelers are turning to Street View to explore both the region’s fascinating landscapes and diverse cultural heritage.

Posted by Amita Khattri, Street View Program Manager, Google

Eight Artefacts That Give You A Taste of the History and Culture DownUnder

Thursday, March 5, 2015

More than 2,000 new Aussie historic and cultural treasures from 25 local cultural partners just came online at the Google Cultural Institute. That’s a lot to look through, so here are eight of our favorites to get you started:

1. This plane made out of wood, metal and Irish linen: Australia’s oldest surviving military aircraft

Deperdussin taxi-type single seat training monoplane, Deperdussin Aeroplane Company, Australian War Memorial

You can virtually sit inside a tank, a bomber and explore extraordinary military hardware, documents and art work from “Mobility at War,” an exhibit curated by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

2. This decked-out 1930’s handyman wagon

Harold Wright’s Saw Doctor’s Wagon, Mr Harold J. Wright, National Museum of Australia

This is the vehicle Mr. Harold Wright used to drive around rural Victoria and fix household items on request. Zoom in and you’ll find his claim to fame: “The Sharpening King is Here.”

3. These ice-caked Adelie penguins caught after a blizzard

Ice-caked Adelie penguins after a blizzard; Cape Denison, Frank Hurley, State Library of New South Wales

Check out this photo of penguins after a blizzard and other artefacts from historic expeditions through "Discovering Antarctica,” an online exhibit from the State Library of New South Wales.

4. This felted-wool convict jacket from Australia’s colonial years

Convict jacket, Unknown, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

From 1855-80 male convicts sent DownUnder were forced to wear these jackets made in Great Britain — the parti-colored ones were given to those convicted of larger crimes.

5. This Australian Aboriginal painting of stingray hunting created on tree bark

Hunting Stingray at Biranybirany by Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Zoom into the details of this piece by aboriginal artist Nyapanyapa Yunupingu called Hunting Stingray at Biranybirany.

6. This example of recycling made beautiful on the coast off Bondi Bay

overconsumption by Kerrie Argent, Sculpture by the Sea

View Kerrie Argent’s overconsumption and the other stunning artwork created as part of last year’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibit in Bondi, Australia’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition.

7. These sculptures made out of air

The Hollows, Mikala Dwyer, Biennale of Sydney

Mikala Dwyer sculpted air to create The Hollows as part of the 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire. For more, take a virtual tour through the festival’s largest venue on Cockatoo Island.

8. This boomerang created by the first Indigenous Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia

Boomerang belonging to Neville Bonner, Neville Bonner, Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

Learn more about Neville Bonner and his boomerang through the Museum of Australian Democracy’s online exhibit.

These are only a few of the diverse Australian artefacts just added to the Google Cultural Institute. We hope you enjoy looking through them and learning more about some of this continent’s incredible stories and heritage.

Posted by Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute

If the Indian Prime Minister’s Office had an app, what would it do?

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

India is going mobile. Every month, more than 6 million people are accessing the Internet for the very first time, through their mobile device. The phone is your window to the outside world, and soon your phone could be your window to the Prime Minister’s Office.

We share Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of innovation, aspiration and connectivity. That’s why we’re so happy to be supporting MyGov in a first of a kind competition as part of the Digital India program to create an app for the Prime Minister’s Office, which PM Modi announced over the weekend:

Rather than tell people what app they should use to engage with the government, the competition will give people a chance to say what they want from an app and India’s immensely talented developers an opportunity to build it. And we’ll provide some guidance and mentoring along the way.

The contest - more info here - will start rolling out now through three phases:

Starting right now and running through March 12th, anyone with an idea on what features an app from the Prime Minister’s Office should include can share it, and vote on other people’s ideas, on www.mygov.in (you’ll need to create an account to get started)
Once all the ideas are in, teams of developers will then be invited to submit rough blueprints (wireframes) for how they would build an app for the Prime Minister’s Office
Out of all the entrants, the five developer teams with the best designs will be invited to build an app - with some mentoring from Googlers - and the winning app, as chosen by an independent jury, will become the official app of the Prime Minister’s Office

India’s move from 300 to 500 million people online will reshape everything, including the government-citizen relationship. Already 50 per cent of India’s Internet users are mobile only. No country has built their Internet on that computing platform, in those numbers, at such a pace. In a time of such rapid, exhilarating change, no one person can claim to know the best tools the government can offer its citizens. But, as a group, we probably do know the answer. That’s the insight that lies behind democracy in the first place.

Posted by Chetan Krishnaswamy, Country Head - Public Policy, Google India

Asia Pacific Blog